Information Modeling and Relational Databases [Hardcover]

Terry Halpin (Author), Tony Morgan (Author)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 976 pages
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 2 edition (Mar 3 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0123735688
ISBN-13: 978-0123735683
Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 19.8 x 4.7 cm
Shipping Weight: 1.8 Kg
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #339,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

This book is an excellent introduction to both information modeling in ORM and relational databases. The book is very clearly written in a step-by-step manner, and contains an abundance of well-chosen examples illuminating practice and theory in information modeling. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in conceptual modeling and databases.
Dr. Herman Balsters, Director of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Product Description

Information Modeling and Relational Databases, second edition, provides an introduction to ORM (Object-Role Modeling)and much more. In fact, it is the only book to go beyond introductory coverage and provide all of the in-depth instruction you need to transform knowledge from domain experts into a sound database design. This book is intended for anyone with a stake in the accuracy and efficacy of databases: systems analysts, information modelers, database designers and administrators, and programmers.

Terry Halpin, a pioneer in the development of ORM, blends conceptual information with practical instruction that will let you begin using ORM effectively as soon as possible. Supported by examples, exercises, and useful background information, his step-by-step approach teaches you to develop a natural-language-based ORM model, and then, where needed, abstract ER and UML models from it. This book will quickly make you proficient in the modeling technique that is proving vital to the development of accurate and efficient databases that best meet real business objectives.

*Presents the most indepth coverage of Object-Role Modeling available anywhere, including a thorough update of the book for ORM2, as well as UML2 and E-R (Entity-Relationship) modeling.

*Includes clear coverage of relational database concepts, and the latest developments in SQL and XML, including a new chapter on the impact of XML on information modeling, exchange and transformation.

* New and improved case studies and exercises are provided for many topics.

* The book's associated web site provides answers to exercises, appendices, advanced SQL queries, and links to downloadable ORM tools.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

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Amazon.com: 4.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book, May 5 2008

By Bill MacLean - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Information Modeling and Relational Databases (Hardcover)

Everyone needs this book. Read more to find out why:

If you intend to create genuinely useful business applications without first creating an accurate conceptual data model and deriving the database schema from the model, then I hope your projects have very large budgets and flexible deadlines, because you'll need both. Accurate conceptual data models are not an academic curiousity, they are a practical necessity. Well designed databases are the heart of every business application, and accurate conceptual data models are the foundation of every well designed database.

This book presents a method for data modeling called Object Role Modeling (ORM). If you've never created a data model before, you might as well learn the best method from the start. If you've used E-R (Entity Relationship) modeling before, this is your chance to learn a method that overcomes the limitations of E-R, while building on the knowledge you already have.

ORM is based on facts (assertions about the business sphere you are modeling), not entities and attributes. Business users understand facts much better than they understand data modeling abstractions. By using ORM facts, you create your data model in a language that business users can understand and validate. Poor communication with business users and inadequate understanding of requirements are major causes of design deficiencies. ORM solves these issues through its fact based approach.

ORM is also much more expressive than any other popular data modeling notation, ncluding UML and all major flavors of E-R. Many business rules should be expressed as data constraints, but traditional data modeling languages don't do well at capturing these constraints. By capturing the constraints in an ORM model and validating with the users, you make the construction of a good application much easier.

Halpin is an excellent writer, and this book is very easy to read. The many examples and crisp writing style mean that you'll actually understand what the author intends, a refreshing change from most computer books. If you've read the previous edition of this book, this update is very worthwhile. There is a lot of expanded and new material, and you'll be happy you purchased the new edition.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on database design, April 17 2008

By Andrew Carver - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Information Modeling and Relational Databases (Hardcover)

This new edition of Information Modeling and Relational Databases maintains its predecessor's achievement of being the best, most complete book out there on design of information systems, and particularly of database schemas -- and of seeming a few decades ahead of the rest of the pack! The relational database theory world seems to move at a rather glacier-like pace -- with the result that some of the schema design methods still in common use have stayed well past their "obsolete by" date. But as a reviewer of the first edition said, this book presents MATURE database design technology; and it can only be hoped that the database design world will sooner, rather than later, realize the immense, and immensely practical, value of the mature theory and design procedure that this book presents. Do you want to be able to arrive at the correct schema the first time? or even to know whether you've reached it or not? This is the book that shows you how, and gives you a rich, formal modeling notation that has very significant and improving tool support. Terry and Tony have both added very valuable new chapters to the book, and expanded and updated the other chapters, so that this is a very much improved book -- as amazing as that may seem to those (like me) who loved the first edition. This book will, in my opinion, be setting the standard for books on information system design for many years to come.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Get to a higher level when modeling data: concept models, Sep 11 2009

By Henry Carvajal - Published on Amazon.com

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This review is from: Information Modeling and Relational Databases (Hardcover)

Before knowing about Dr. Helpin's CSDP, I often struggled to find the appropiate data model for the project at hand. Model validation with users was not straight-forward: users do not think of the world in terms of entities and relationships of the ER model - They think about facts and concepts. Now, I do not try to fight with a data model, I build the ORM model and let the procedure to build the ER one.

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